Photo : Jean de l'Auxois / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Château de Filain
About fifteen kilometres south of Vesoul, in the Haute-Saône, the Château de Filain stands in a green setting, away from the main roads. The medieval castle dates back to the late 14th century: it was then surrounded by a ditch and flanked by four round towers. Remodelled in the Renaissance, in the 16th century, its façade now has two square towers.
In 1980 the Montornès family took over the estate and began restoring the château and its gardens. These gardens, famous enough for a variety of rose to bear the château's name, lie within a French formal park that includes a Renaissance-period box hedge and a fine rose garden.
The walk also passes an aviary; peacocks strut along the banks of the Filaine, a stream that is home to black swans, wood ducks and mandarin ducks.
